A Look at Past Homes of UC Hastings

Academy of Sciences

DuPont & California Streets
(At Right, Across from Old St. Mary's Church)

1879-1880

"In 1879, the college moved to the Academy of Sciences, beginning what has been called the "Odyssey of Hastings." For by 1953, when the college moved into its own modern plant at Hyde and McAllister Streets in San Francisco, it had changed locations 15 times without acquiring a permanent home."—UC Centennial.

Old City Hall

McAllister & Larkin Streets

1901-1906

Destroyed by Earthquake and Fire in 1906

Hastings' Board of Directors turned down an offer of a newly constructed facility on Parnassus Heights (present location of the UCSF campus) which had been offered the College for its use by the University Regents. Instead, they accepted a competing offer of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors to share space in the new City Hall, 1899. Hastings Board preferred the less ample space because of its proximity to the "law courts and San Francisco's Law Library." Some may think this decision prescient because of the College's ultimate permanent location in the Civic Center area. [See Barnes, p. 148.]

[Note: Barnes identifies the location of the University "Affiliated Colleges" building which the Regents offered to Hastings' Board as located on "Sutro Heights". However, Sutro Heights was generally used to refer to the location where Adolph Sutro had built his mansion, on the western edge of the City. The location shown in the photo facing p. 147 in Barnes is taken from Parnassus Street. Compare this to the photo in the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection (#AAD-0573, "University of California Hospital, 3rd and Parnassus streets") in the San Francisco Public Library's Rare Book Room.]

Temple Emanu-El

450 Sutter Street

1906

"Immediately following the fire [as a result of the April 18, 1906 earthquake] the courts and some departments of the county government, such as the sheriff's office and the district attorney's office, were centered at California and Webster streets, many of the departments of the Superior Court being located in Temple Emanu-El." (See Harrison, p. 23.)

Cooper Medical College

(Later Stanford Medical School)
Wester & Sacramento Streets

1906-1907

"Dr. Edward R. Taylor was at that time dean [post-Earthquake and Fire, 1906] and was also connected with Cooper Medical College, then located at Sacramento and Webster streets. Through his efforts and the cooperation of the Board of Directors Hastings College was accorded the use of lecture rooms in Cooper Medical College, now affiliated with Stanford University, and it was there the college year opened in August, 1906." (See Harrison, p. 23.)

Grant Building

Seventh & Market Streets

1908

"I cannot now remember the exact duration of our stay at Cooper Medical College, but I would say it was about two years. I recall that the next move was to the Grant Building at Seventh and Market streets and there my classes were accorded use of the courtroom of the department of the Superior Court presided over by Judge Thomas F. Graham. Our stay there was not, however, very long." (Hon. Robert W. Harrison, Professor of Law, Hastings College of the Law, quoted in the Jubilee Book, p. 25.)

Whittell Building

(View from Union Square)
116 Geary Street

1909-1913

"In the summer of 1909 a two-year lease was taken of the twelfth floor of the Whittell Building on Geary street and it was there that the college opened in August of that year. This lease was renewed for an additional two-year term ending July 31, 1913." (See Harrison, p. 25.)

Underwood Building

525 Market Street

1913-1916

"More favorable terms being offered, rooms were next leased in the Underwood Building, 525 Market street, and the classes were held there until about March 1, 1916, when we moved to quarters assigned to us by the Board of Supervisors on the north side of the fourth floor of the City Hall, which had been recently completed." (See Harrison, p. 25.)

New City Hall

Van Ness Avenue between McAllister & Grove Streets

1916-1923

"During the period of which I write we were longer at the City Hall than at any other place. In some respects our rooms there were more desirable than other places we have occupied. The rooms were quiet and we had more privacy. Above all, we had convenient access to the San Francisco Law Library, which was on the same floor, and the students could also readily attend sessions of the Superior Court, thereby obtaining an actual demonstration of the practice of law." (Hon. Robert W. Harrison, Professor of Law, Hastings College of the Law, quoted in the Jubilee Book, p. 25.)

State Building

1923-1932
1933-1938

"Through the efforts of the Board of Directors, of which the then Chief Justice Hon. Frank M. Angellotti was chairman, and due to his interest as an alumnus of the college and his cooperation as chairman of the San Francisco State Building Commission, space was set aside for the college in the new State Building then being constructed in the Civic Center and to that building we went in 1923. There we were given the east end of the first floor and it was there we opened the first semester in August of that year. ...

"The present quarters have some advantages, but the writer believes that it would be much more to the advantage of the college if it could either have its own building or an undisturbed use of a building better fitted to its needs and more adapted to concentrated study and to growth. Such a building would encourage among the students and instructors a spirit of unity, loyalty and cooperation which it is more difficult to maintain under the restricted and mixed conditions under which we now operate." (Hon. Robert W. Harrison, Professor of Law, Hastings College of the Law, writing in 1928, quoted in the Jubilee Book, p. 25.)

Call Building

703 Market Street

1932-1933

California Building

(Last temporary home)
515 Van Ness Avenue

1938-1953

"The greatest problem faced by the College [in the 1930s] was the inadequacy of its physical plant to deal with increased enrollments. In academic 1933-34 Hastings for the first time in its history limited enrollment; it continued to do so until the end of the decade. ... A fourth, smaller classroom was secured in the State Building, but the overcrowding remained severe, and a search was begun in earnest to find new quarters. ... [In] 1939-40, [the state appropriation to Hastings] was raised to $20,661 per annum, principally to cover the higher rent and new equipment needed for the new and somewhat larger quarters which the College occupied in May 1938 in the California Building at 515 Van Ness Avenue." (See Barnes, p. 235.)

Hastings College of the Law—198 McAllister Building

Hastings' first permanent home. A new wing was dedicated in 1970. Photo depicts the Dedication Ceremony, March, 1953.

1953–Present

"It is probable that from the outset of his tenure [Dean] David Snodgrass intended to build a permanent home for the College. He was a builder by instinct, with a sense of space and an eye for decoration. ... The present Hastings College of the Law at 198 McAllister Street owed more to him in utilization of site, space arrangement, and the appearance of the front, or facade, than it did to the architect responsible for it.

"... On August 23 [1944], [Snodgrass] proposed acquiring 'a building of its own for Hastings College after the war,' and [Board of Directors members] Slack, Ehrman, and Maurice Harrison were appointed a committee to decide 'ways and means' to provide such a building. There was no question raised as to whether or not to build, only how it was to be done.

After a request for an appropriation from the State, Hastings received authorization in 1947 for $1,450,000, while the University received an appropriation of $1,000,000 for construction of the new law school at UCLA. Hastings worked closely with the University architect (Louis DeMonte) in planning the project, and the outside architectural firm of Masten and Hurd was retained. The ground-breaking took place on November 30, 1950. "Finally, in late winter of 1952-53, the dream was a reality and ready for occupancy. It was a handsome building. The facade was imposing—no Iconic Order, indeed, but the louvred lights gave a bold appearance... The interior was thoroughly functional and almost luxuriously elegant. The classrooms and moot courtroom were perfectly furnished. There was finally room for Charles William Slack's library, and the reading room was named in his honor. Open stacks for the first time seemed to invite Hastings students into the world of books. And there were offices for all the faculty, a common room for them to meet in, and ample space for student activities.

"On March 26, 1953, the 75th anniversary of the Act of 1878 establishing Hastings, the new edifice that had hardly yet been occupied was dedicated. The same chief justice and president of the Board, Phil S. Gibson, who had been present at the meeting that appointed David Ellington Snodgrass acting dean thirteen years before, was in the chair. The terrace was packed with dignitaries, the faculty and Directors, representatives of other law schools, legislators, and judges. Governor Earl Warren (soon to be Chief Justice of the United States) bulked large on the platform. Clark Kerr, provost of the University, represented it in the absence of Robert Gordon Sproul. ... The principal address was given by the president of the Association of American Law Schools, Charles B. Nutting, vice-chancellor and dean of the law school at the University of Pittsburgh..." (See Barnes, pp. 283-289.)

Hastings College of the Law—200 McAllister Building

1980–Present

Hastings College of the Law—McAllister Tower Building

100 McAllister Street

1982–Present

References:

Barnes, Thomas Garden. Hastings College of the Law: the first century (1978, San Francisco: Hastings College of the Law Press).

Harrison, Hon. Robert W. "The Odyssey of Hastings" in Hastings College of the Law Golden Jubilee Book, 1878-1928 (1928, San Francisco: Recorder Publishing Co.).